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Make the assessor respond in writing

A written reason for cutting your variation gives you something to argue with, and a bare figure gives you nothing. Ask for the assessment against your build-up, line by line, in writing.

Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.

Why it matters

A variation certified at nil with no explanation leaves you nothing to answer. You cannot tell whether your main contractor disputes the instruction, the quantity, the rate or the arithmetic. So your next application repeats the same figure and gets the same nil, and months pass.

A written assessment, line by line, turns that silence into a position. Perhaps it accepts the instruction but not the hours, or the hours but not the rate. You can prove or concede each of those. A written reason given now is also one it has to stand behind later. An undervaluation with reasons is a negotiation. One without reasons is just a smaller number.

How to do it

  1. Write the same week whenever a variation is certified below the sum you applied for. Ask for the assessment against your build-up, line by line.
  2. Ask which of the instruction, the quantities, the rates and the records are disputed, and why.
  3. Write again if the reply is a bare figure, and note in your next application that no reasons have been given.
  4. Answer each reason with the record that meets it, and concede the ones you cannot support, so the gap narrows every month.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

A subcontractor applies for a variation at £19,000, built up as 320 hours at £40 plus £6,200 of materials. The main contractor's Payment Notice certifies £7,000 against it with no explanation.

What happens

  1. The commercial manager writes asking for the assessment, line by line, against the build-up.
  2. The reply disputes the 320 hours, because the main contractor's records show 180. The materials are accepted.
  3. The subcontractor sends the daily allocation sheets, initialled, showing 320 hours to the reference. The main contractor's surveyor accepts 290.

The outcome

The variation settles at £17,800 the following month. Left at £7,000 with no reasons, it would have been applied for again and refused on the same terms until the final account.

To have this done for you, see our Variation Claim service.